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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

In Despicable
Me 2, Steve Carell’s Gru is a changed man. No longer a dastardly villain,
he’s now domesticated. Unfortunately,
Gru has also domesticated his comedy edge. Shooting for the moon isn’t near as
funny as stealing it.

Enter
a complex plot to get him back in the action, and another complex family
subplot that aims to recreate the charm of the first film. None of Gru’s
stories come together. The original Despicable
Me (2010) managed to juggle the belly laughs with action and a charming family story — this does
not.

Enter
the Minions, the silly yellow workers who had a sub role in the first film and
prime roles in 3 mini DVD movies (2010). All of their zaniness works so well
that Gru’s unfocused stories don’t even matter. They alone make this a winning
film.

If
you have small kids, time your bathroom breaks around the meandering Gru
stories, not the Minion comedy breaks.

Simply put:Gru and the girls (who I loved the first
time around) are now despicably boring, but this is really a Minion spin off.
And the Minions deliver a zany good time.

Award potential: Best Animated Film and
(maybe) Best Original Song nominations. It won’t win either of them.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The
plot of every buddy cop movie is simple: A pair of law enforcers is assigned
together. One guy is a straight arrow and the other guy is a wheels off
toughie. They clash at first but eventually become friends to get the bad guy
(usually an insider). The twist in The
Heat, is that the cops are both women.

So,
hurray, it has been achieved: a formula buddy comedy with women can be just as
underachieving, unoriginal and boorish as one with men.

Director Paul Feig
explored contrasting issues like female camaraderie and female competitiveness
so winningly funny in Bridesmaids. But
this is just a throwaway.The good news is that
the fearless duo of Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock are hilarious in all
the small bits. The bad news is that the film is almost two hours long.

Simply
put: Not so hot. A few
laughs from McCarthy.

Award
potential: Feig directed McCarthy
to an Oscar nomination with Bridesmaids.
No chance for a comic nod for this slight film. Not even at the Globes.

The ten
buck review: Not worth ten bucks. Unless
you think it’s worth ten bucks to see Sandra Bullock shoot a peanut out of her
nose.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Bard can throw
a good party — even in 2013. Shakespeare's timeless comedy is given a
contemporary spin in Joss Whedon's (The Avenger, Buffy
The Vampire Slayer, Firefly) film.

Shot in flat,
uninspiring black and white, the familiar story takes place at a modern day Los
Angeles home — but the dialogue is strict Shakespearean. This clash is jolting
at first but the director makes it work quite naturally.

And while the
whole film feels effortless, that’s also the biggest problem. It just never
went to the next level of hilarity. It needed a little spark. I blame the
performances – perhaps they were too focused on making the premise work. Amy
Acker (Angel)
as Beatrice and Clark Gregg (The Avengers) as
Leona came closest injecting that energy and interest.

Simply
put: Not
near as funny as it should be — but I protest too much — it will be an
enjoyable rental.

Award
potential:
Some art house cred kudos to the director will be the only reward for this
light comedy.

Director Roland
Emmerich (Independence Day) attempts
another “Die Hard In The White House”
movie three months after Olympus Has
Fallen. One would assume that a less serious take on this concept might be
the better popcorn movie — not true.

Attempting to play
Bruce Willis in a tank top is Channing Tatum in a tank top, who is neither as
witty or charismatic. The backstory is a broken family drama that parallels the
Die Hard movies, but Emmerich didn’t
even attempt to create a villain as interesting as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber.

The original element
here is the White House. Jamie Foxx, an action hero himself, plays the
anti-action hero POTUS. I suppose this is a misplaced attempt to do an
impression of Barack Obama. By the time the Presidential state car is doing
laps on the White House lawn, you realize this movie is doing laps on you.

This isn’t an assault
on 1600 Pennsylvania, it’s an assault on moviegoers.